This invention relates to barbecue apparatus, hereinafter for brevity's sake being referred to simply as barbecues, which include a source of heat and which are usable, usually in an outdoor setting, to prepare foods as by broiling or baking them.
Most barbecues, as currently known, utilize so-called charcoal briquets or, in some instances, gas burners as the source of heat. Briquets are expensive, require time to become properly ignited and reach operating temperatures, tend to be messy to handle, and when cooking is finished, are difficult to extinguish. As a consequence, they are usually left to burn themselves out, resulting in wastage of the briquet fuel. While gas burners have certain convenience features not shared by briquets, they do not impart a flavor to the cooked material because of the lack of smoke which characterizes a wood-based fire.
Wood-based pellets are known which have been used to some extent in the past for household heating purposes. Such pellets are conventionally prepared by pelletizing under heat and pressure comminuted wood waste or other residues to produce a pellet product of substantially uniform size. Typical pellets might have diameters within the range of one-quarter to one-half inch and lengths of one-half to one inch and, depending to some extent upon their source, may have considerable heat content for a given mass of material.
A general object of this invention is to provide a novel barbecue which utilizes as a heat source therein a pellet-fired burner evolving heat adjacent the base of a barbecue pan.
Another object is to provide such a barbecue where the burner in the barbecue includes forced-air means contributing combustion-supporting air for the burning of the pellets, and which further produces a form of convection heating for the food being cooked. Hot forced air circulates in the barbecue pan as a result of the forced-air means, resulting in more even cooking, and greater flexibility in the cooking use of the barbecue.
Yet another object is to provide such a barbecue where the fire pot of a burner, where burning of fuel occurs, opens to the interior of the barbecue pan at the bottom of the barbecue pan. An auger feed mechanism for supplying pellet material for burning extends under the barbecue pan in a more-or-less heat-isolated position. Combustion supporting air may be forced through a suitable housing in the apparatus to be expelled first into the fire pot of the burner and, thence, upwardly in circulated flow through the interior of the barbecue pan.
In a specific and preferred embodiment of the invention, a metallic baffle plate is mounted within the interior of the barbecue pan in covering relation over and spaced upwardly from the top of the pot in the burner. This baffle pan serves a number of important functions, including promoting proper circulation in the barbecue pan, providing a means which is heated and serves as a radiant heat source for food cooked in the barbecue, and further providing a means extending under the food to be cooked for collecting drippings and such and preventing such from falling to the base of the pan proper. The baffle plate is easily removed when necessary for cleaning purposes.
With the barbecue contemplated, a number of advantages result. Fire startup is relatively rapid, and far less time-consuming then the starting of a briquet fire. The fuel used is considerably less expensive than briquets. Furthermore, the amount of fuel used is only that necessary to produce the cooking, since with termination of the feed of pellet material, the burner extinguishes itself relatively rapidly. Unlike gas-fired barbecues, the material cooked is subjected to a flavorful wood smoke to retain some of the taste thereof. With the advantage indicated of convection heating in the barbecue, cooking times are increased and the types of products cooked and manner of cooking are subject to greater variation.